Hip, casual joint The Salted Plum is popular for its affordable, modern, robust-tasting renditions of Taiwanese-style porridge dishes. It has recently expanded its takeaway and delivery menus, which includes bento and family sets to choose from. Treat ma and the fam to the Premium Family Set ($98 for 3-4 pax; $118 for 5-6 pax) which includes a variety of meats such as the flavour-packed, garlicky Burnt Chilli Chicken 2.0 ($9.90 a la carte) cooked with numbing Sichuan pepper, a Crab Omelette ($20 a la carte), umami Cabbage and Bamboo Shoots ($10 a la carte), and five spice-powder-spiked Oyster Mushrooms and Smashed Potatoes ($10 a la carte). For dessert, the Red Tea Jelly ($5 a la carte), topped with tapioca pearls is like a yummy, ‘dry’ version of pearl milk tea: you drizzle cream over the silky homemade Taiwanese tea-flavoured jelly, which forms a sort of fragrant tea sauce over the chewy pearls. Genius. Don’t miss out on the aromatic purple Sweet Potato Congee ($2 per portion) either.

Order takeaway or via delivery (free with minimum order of $60; $10 islandwide with minimum spend of $30) here: http://order.saltedplum.co/ . Also available on FoodPanda and Deliveroo.

Photo: The Salted Plum

Mod European joint Butcher Boy by chef Andrew Walsh of Cure restaurant has come up with a DIY Build A Bao Kit ($48 for six baos; $88 for 12 baos) starring his signature fried chicken baos for you to recreate (for mum) at home. There are two flavours to choose from: the Buttermilk Chicken Bao and Pork Katsu Croquette. We suggest the former — we’ve had it before in the restaurant and it’s delish.

The Buttermilk Chicken set comes with fluffy mantou, buttermilk battered chicken fillets, soy mayo sauce and cucumber pickles. Don’t worry, there’s only simple reheating and assembly involved, such as popping the chicken in the oven or air fryer, steaming the buns and garnishing it all with pickles and sauces. If you’d prefer something a little more atas for mummy, Butcher Boy is also offering a special Mother’s Day weekend Salmon En Croûte roast for two ($108), fish baked in puff pastry, served with fresh potatoes, salad, yuzu beurre blanc, roasted cauliflower and pomegranate. Pre-orders for the roast must be made by 8 May.

Order takeaway or via delivery (free with minimum order of $150; or $10 islandwide with minimum spend of $35) here: www.ButcherBoy.com.sg/delivery

Photos: Butcher Boy

Mr Biryani, a restaurant in Norris Road, serves one of the tastiest Hyderabad-style dum biryanis (where the meat and rice are layered in pots sealed with dough and slow-cooked) in town. Aside from those cooked truly dum-style from start to end, we think the flavours here are more catered to Singaporeans’ love for heartier flavours. So expect a punchy, rather fiery hit from the masala paste on the meats embedded in the rice. For this Mother’s Day, try the good-value Family Package A ($60; feeds 2-4 pax) which includes your choice of a starter, two heaping boxes of biryani, two main dishes like the lip-smacking, piquant Goan Fish Curry, smoky Chicken Tikka and also two naans. In our opinion, the a la carte biryanis are superior (see below).

Case in point: the Lamb Shank Biryani ($20), featuring a hunk of bone-in meat that’s tender, not at all gamey and marinated in mouthwatering masala spices. The basmati grains boast a nice bite and plenty of flavour from the usual Indian aromatics, as well as the meat drippings. And it comes with a hardboiled egg. Vegetarians will be pleased to know there’s also a really good Brinjal Biryani ($9) featuring the same grains, but studded with plump whole baby brinjals that are spicy and succulent. Worth the inevitable heartburn.

Order takeaway or via delivery (free with minimum order of $60; or $10 islandwide with minimum spend of $30) here: www.mrbiryanisg.com . Also available on GrabFood and Deliveroo.

Never mind that you can’t take mum to the steakhouse — you’ll bring beautiful dry-aged USDA Prime Black Angus beef to her this circuit breaker. Wolfgang's Steakhouse at Intercontinental hotel Robertson Quay is famous for its Peter Luger-esque (that famous NYC institution) steaks dry-aged for 28 days. We’ve always enjoyed their good-value lunch deals. Now, the upmarket beef temple is offering a special CB delivery menu. There’s the juicy Rib-eye Steak for one ($138 for 550 grams), but we think the Porterhouse Steak for two ($206 for 900 grams, bone-in) is better value. It says it feeds two, but really, after you add on some yummy sides like the German Potatoes ($24) or Sauteed Peas with Onions ($20), it’s enough for at least three people, maybe even four modest eaters. Especially if you also throw in one of Wolfgang’s well-priced burgers (from $22, see below) and a slice of creamy New York Style Cheesecake ($18).

We admit we had our reservations about ordering expensive steaks via delivery (isn’t it best eaten onsite?). But the medium-rare porterhouse steak delivered to our home fared surprisingly well. It came with clear instructions for warming it up gently in the oven, and it emerged still soft, yielding, fairly juicy and full of deep, satisfyingly beefy flavours. Be sure to transfer it onto decent plates, since this comes in a no-frills plastic container.

Each burger comes with a side of fries and onion rings. There’s the Classic Wolfgang burger ($22), cooked with prime Black Angus beef, then draped with lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. Or a ‘burger of the week’, where a different topping is featured (past burgers included a Satay one) until 1 June. This week’s special is the Chilli Con Carne ($28), featuring a beef patty cloaked with spicy Chilli Con Carne sauce.

Order takeaway or via delivery (free with minimum order of $35) here: https://wolfgangssteakhousesg.company.site/

Photo: Wolfgang's Steakhouse

We’ve written about the dreamy tau sar pau from online store Bao Now, which tastes almost exactly like a cheaper version of 40 Hands Café’s delicious one. Enter Mdm Ling Bakery, which also offers a similarly flat, soft pau with silky red bean filling. The beans are boiled for eight hours and the buns have no preservatives or artificial flavouring. While the red bean and lotus versions are quite similar to Bao Now, the salted egg yolk custard pau fares better with an oozier, slightly tastier filling.

There’s currently an offer of $1 off the bean buns (U.P. $8.90 for six); golden salted egg yolk buns (U.P. $10.90 for six) and Lian Rong (lotus paste) buns ($4.80 for six). Aside from buns, Mdm Ling Bakery also offers cookies. We like the New Zealand's Premium Anchor Butter Cookies ($16.30) best — the lightly crunchy, lemak morsels taste like a more elegant version of the tinned Danish butter cookies we grew up eating. Here’s a special Mother’s Day bundle to consider: a packet each of the above mentioned three buns, plus two jars of cookies (any flavour) for a special price of $50, with free delivery. Mother’s Day bundle available till 1 June.

Order via delivery (free with minimum order of $45; or $10.90 delivery fee) here: https://www.mdmlingbakery.com/en_SG/.

While the TungLok Group is offering a 20% discount when you opt for self-collection at its outlets like Duckland at Paya Lebar Quarter and Lao Beijing in Velocity@Novena Square, what we’d really recommend is the peking duck at TungLok XiHé Peking Duck at The Grandstand. The bird (from the lauded Silver Hill Farm in Ireland) is worth ordering. We did some time ago and the all-important skin stayed crackingly crisp and flavourful even 45 minutes after collection. The meat is appropriately tender and juicy, too. The discount is only applicable to a la carte items on the menu, which includes the signature Peking Duck ($66.75 after discount; U.P. $83.50).

TungLok XiHé Peking Duck is at #01-23/26, 200 Turf Club Rd, S287994. Call 6466-3363 or drop by the restaurant to order takeaway (discount not valid if made through online platforms; delivery charges $5 flat with minimum spend of $50). View the takeaway menu here: https://www.tunglok.com/en/takeawaymeals

Photo: TungLok

Six-star luxury hotel Capella Singapore in Sentosa is offering some pretty hearty family-friendly takeout meals. We were surprised by just how delicious the Capella Roasted Chicken Meal ($90 for 2 pax; $164 for 4 pax) was. The bird, despite sitting in our kitchen for 30 minutes before we had time to eat it after a Zoom meeting, was extremely moist and tender from breast to wing. It was also expertly marinated — aptly salted, and perfumed with herbs. It comes with some excellent tangy roasted tomato soup, plus the usual roast meat fixings like rosemary roasted potatoes, glazed carrots with cumin seeds and sautéed mushrooms. Dessert comprises mini bread and butter puddings. Portions for the two-pax meal were so generous, we can safely say it feeds three.

Call 6591-5946 to order via takeaway or delivery (free with minimum spending of $100; otherwise $10 fee per location). View the menu here: https://www.capellahotels.com/en/capella-singapore/offers/capella-flavours

Yak Kin! by Yaowarat Seafood claims to offer “Singapore’s first Thai-Japanese Yakiniku delivery service”. The set menus feeds 3 to 4 people — the Premium Mixed Set ($90) features various cuts of meats such as the US Short Plate, US Kurobuta Pork Jowl, Half-Shell Scallops and Aussie Wagyu Mini Patty. Comes with other dishes such as garlic fried rice and a vegetable platter. Plus dips like Issan Thai chilli and sesame yakiniku tare. Or if you want to mix and match, you can order dishes a la carte from a range of beef, pork and seafood. They even provide nifty-looking disposable charcoal grills ($20) for one-time usage if you don’t have one at home. Fun.  

Order via delivery (free with minimum order of $80; otherwise delivery fee ranges from location) here:  https://bit.ly/yakkinorders

Photo: Yak Kin! by Yaowarat Seafood

Since 2007, The Shepherd’s Pie has been baking an assortment of different shepherd pie flavours. If you’re looking for something classic, try the baked Classic Beef Pie ($33.90 for 9 inches; feeds 4-6 pax) cooked with ground beef, carrots and onions, all topped with mashed potatoes. A new flavour has also been introduced for Ramadan and Hari Raya (till end May): the Satay Chicken Shepherd’s Pie ($35.90 for 9 inches; feeds 4-6 pax), cooked with satay-inspired aromatics like lemongrass and turmeric. The creamy, smooth mashed spuds piped to look like pretty flowers are lovely — our only grouse is that the filling is a tad sweet. So maybe try the classic beef or chicken flavour instead. All pies are halal-certified.

Order takeaway or via delivery (free with minimum order of $65; delivery fee ranges from $5-$15, depending on location) here: https://order.theshepherdspie.com/en_SG​​​​​​​

We sadly can’t go out with our mum for a Mother’s Day meal, but there’s still the option of ordering in a feast from fine-dining Cantonese restaurant Crystal Jade Palace. It is currently offering Parents’ Day set menus from now till June 30 (‘cos Dad deserves a treat too). Choose from options for two to 10 pax (from $179.80 to $714.80), all with complimentary island-wide delivery. We tried the Premium Harmony Set Menu ($265.40 for four pax), which comes with four portions each of Braised Superior Fish Maw with Crab Meat and Conpoy Soup and Mango Purée with Pomelo & Sago. Plus hearty main dishes to share like a fresh, delish Long Hu Garoupa (average weight of 600g) steamed in black bean sauce, a 3 Roasted Meat Combination Platter with roasted duck, crispy pork belly and honey barbecued pork, Braised Seasonal Vegetables with plump abalones and shiitake mushrooms, and Egg White Fried Rice with Sakura Ebi. The comforting dishes keep well for delivery (look Ma, no soggy messes or washing up required). Your folks would surely approve.

Order from www.estore.crystaljade.com at least three days in advance, or call 9177-2901/ 9177-1971 for same-day delivery. ​​​​​​​

This year, Crystal Jade also offers four dumpling flavours for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival. There’s the decadent Traditional Hong Kong-style Premium Jinhua Ham with Conpoy Rice Dumpling ($18.80 each). The rectangular parcel is stuffed with over nine ingredients like dry-cured Jinhua ham, Hokkaido conpoy, roast pork and roast duck. Or if your folks are vegetarian, there’s also the new Eight Treasure Quinoa Rice Dumpling ($6.80 each) with meatless ingredients like chye poh (preserved radish), Japanese Nameko and dried shiitake mushrooms and chestnuts. Those who prefer a spicy kick can try the Spicy Dried Shrimp Rice Dumpling ($8.80 each) loaded with house-made hae bee hiam made with Indonesian dried red shrimps, plus Hokkaido conpoy and diced chicken. From now till June 5, Crystal Jade’s Jadeite, UOB or Citibank cardmembers get a 15 per cent discount (and 10 per cent from June 6 to 25).

Order from www.estore.crystaljade.com (use promo code ‘CJRD5OFF’ for additional 5 per cent e-store discount) from now till June 22, or purchase at Crystal Jade outlets from now till June 25.

SELECTED PHOTOS: FLORENCE FONG & YIP JIEYING

Additional reporting by Yip Jieying